On a lonely beach
by Finduilas
Summary: On a remote beach two brothers confront each other. Be gentle with me, this is my first fic. Chapter 3 is up.
1. Sunset

1 On a Lonely Beach  
  
It was, many would agree, an achingly beautiful location with mountains clad with verdant green rainforest sweeping down to a silver white beach. But the man on the beach only had eyes for the sea resplendent with the jewel colours of the setting sun.  
  
He sighes and pulls his eyes away from the sea. The air is noticably cooler now the sun has gone and he stops and pulls out a woolen jersey from his daypack. Quickly pulling it over his t-shirt he picks up the pack and walks back up the beach to a boat shed. He gazes at the newly finished boat inside the shed and lovingly caresses it with his hand.  
  
"Tomorrow." He promises it and then speaks to another, "Hello Simon, I was wondering when they were going to send out the search parties for me." He turns and faces the man standing in the doorway.  
  
The other man is clad in the green of a forest ranger, his face creased with concern. "We were worried about you, David." He lifts his eyebrow, "How long have being aware of me?"  
  
David laughes, "Since the sunset. You know you can't sneak up on me." He sighs, "since you have bothered to come out all the way to this remote spot I suppose I better offer you some hospitality before I send you on your way."  
  
The other man flushes, "Not until you give an explanation of why you have suddenly abandoned…"  
  
David raises his hand, palm outwards. "Peace! Simon. You have travelled far today, let me offer you some refreshment and then give you the explanation that you desire. Come up to the house with me."  
  
The two men walk up a narrow track beside the boatshed. The track winds up the hillside through dense bush to a gravel road where a department of conservation vehicle is parked, on the other side of the road is a green weatherboard cottage. Not even pausing to unlock the door, David opens the door of the cottage. With a wave of his hand the cottage is flooded with light.  
  
Raising his eyebrow again, Simon looks around the living room of the cottage while David busies himself in the kitchen. Aside from the computer in the corner and a rather expensive looking sound system by the fireplace, the room is simply furnished. Simon picks up one of the CDs on the mantlepiece and smiles. David's choice in music is as impleccable as aways, he thinks. He then notices two paperbacks sitting next to the computer, "The Lord of Rings" and the "Silmarillion" by JRR Tolkien and raises his eyebrows again.  
  
David enters the room bearing a trayful of food and two mugs of steaming coffee. Simon sighs as he drinks his coffee, just how he likes it, which was not surprising considering the length of time they had know each other. He waves his hand indicating the room, "with all this about I'm surprised you don't lock your door."  
  
David snorts, "I'm surprised you made that statement, you know no-one can enter enter one of our dwelling against our will, the cottage is warded."  
  
The meal is eaten in silence, afterwards David clears away the dishes.  
  
When he re-enters the living room Simon stands up, "I think I have waited long enough David. We were concerned when you didn't turn up for the Solstice celebrations, then we discovered you had taken leave from your job at the University…"  
  
"And to cut a long story short," interrupts David, "you tracked me down here."  
  
Simon flushes, "we have our means. But why David, why leave all that you love, all who you love and come here."  
  
"Let's say I'm seeking my roots."  
  
"But we are your roots, flesh of your flesh, blood of your blood. Why do you keep apart from us?"  
  
"But I knew we would meet again before the end…"  
  
"Now you are really worrying me, what's this talk of ending?"  
  
David walks over to the computer desk and picks up the two paperbacks, putting them down again he turns to face Simon.  
  
"Tomorrow I sail west to Valinor."  
  
"What! I think you have taken more than leave of your job, you seem to have abandoned your senses along the way as well!" Simon waves his hand at the books, "that's just a fiction concocted by some English professor. By the One, David, get a grip on yourself. We're not elves…"  
  
"Then what are we Simon?" He grips Simon by the shoulder and speaks mind to mind.  
  
We may live among them in their cities, use their names, eat their food, wear their clothes, play with their toys but the one thing that we are not is human!  
  
The two brothers face each other with their gray eyes locked together in faces of inhuman beauty. 


	2. Starlight

David finally releases his grip on his brother's arm. "Come, walk with me. I wish to walk in the starlight."  
  
The two brothers walk outside the cottage. While they were eating their meal the dusk had darkened into night. David gazes up into the sky with appreciation, the sheer intensity with which they sparkled was one of the things he missed while dwelling in the cities of men. Surf thunders on the beach below them and the air is rich with smell of the green life of the earth. He leans back on the 4 wheel drive and fixes his gaze again on the western horizon.  
  
"Who are we? WHAT are we?" David repeats his earlier question.  
  
Simon replies, "We are The People, The Children of the Stars…"  
  
David gazes at his brother, "That's what we call ourselves, what do the humans call us?"  
  
Simon shrugs, "Patupaiarehe, pakepakeha…"  
  
David interrupts, "those are the Maori names for our people, what do the Newcomers call us?"  
  
"The Newcomers, as far as I know, are not so aware of our presence among them to give us a name. Quite frankly, I prefer it that way."  
  
"Simon, you are being evasive, if you looked up patupaiarehe in a Maori/English dictionary what translation do you get?"  
  
The end of Simon's mouth twitches, "Fairy." Playfully he flips brother around examines the space between his shoulder blades. "Dear brother, alas, you seem to have lost your wings," he quibs.  
  
David turns around to face him. "Look Simon you know I am not talking about the creatures found in modern day picture books but beings in European mythology who bear an incredible resemblance to our own people…"  
  
"And you should know, David, that when the people first heard those myths some of us went to Europe in search of our kindred and what did we find?" Simon challenges David with a stare. "Little magic, an industrial revolution ripping the heart out of the countryside and if there were any elves we certainly didn't find any. Their myths of Elves are just that, a myth"  
  
"The Europeans would also say that The People are also a myth, Simon," David says softly, "and you know the lie of that. Maybe the reason we couldn't find our kindred in Europe was for the reason that Tolkien describes; they either left for the blessed realm or they diminished, became those flittery creatures of bedtime tales."  
  
"Then why hasn't the same thing happened to us?"  
  
"If you look at our legends, I think we were given the same chance to go the Blessed Realm but we were too enamoured of the forests and seas of this world to give it much serious thought. As for the fading maybe we were given the grace to dwell in this land until the humans came. They simply came much later here than any other land on this earth.  
  
"Can't you feel it, Simon? We are also fading, diminishing. I don't want to become some rustic creature of the bush or a pseudo-human that finds it increasingly harder to keep up the lie of being human. I just feel that there is much more that I could be, something that transcends this current existence."  
  
The intensity of the emotion in his brother's voice stuns Simon; he finally finds some words to say. "And you really hope to find your answers in a fiction book written by an English professor on the other side of the World?"  
  
David looks at him solemnly, "but are they works of fiction? I thought so until I stumbled a web site devoted to some of Tolkien's so-called fictional languages. I say, "So called" because there is a definite relationship those languages and our own. Look, come over to the cottage there are some files on the computer I want you to see."  
  
They start to head back to the cottage, "So you are going to head out in the boat tomorrow and try and find the straight path, what happens if you just end up in Australia? I hope you are taking your passport with you."  
  
David laughes, "If that happens, I'll arrange to have the boat transported to Ireland and try again." Then he turns serious again, "but I don't think that will happen, not if the dreams I have been having recently are anything to go by."  
  
David sees the look of concern return to his brother's face but before he has a chance to open his mouth a phone rings in his brother's car. Simon walks over to answer it.  
  
He hear the voice of his boss in the Department of Conservation, "Is that you Simon? We have an whale stranding on our hands." Simon hesitates before he answers; he finds it hard to switch back to English especially after the intensity of the exchange with his brother. "Yes, it's Simon."  
  
"Simon, you sound a bit strange. Are you off with the fairies or something?"  
  
Simon starts at this statement, "I'm visiting my brother at his bach."  
  
"Strange, it says down here you're on a biodiversity survey near Punakaiki, something about giant wetas. Never mind, it does mean that you are the right man in the right place. Look a rather large pod of pilot whales have stranded themselves on a beach 10 k's north of Punakaiki. You're the best men I have when it comes to dealing with marine mammals, by God there are times I think you can talk to them, I want you down there pronto."  
  
Simon swears under his breath, not now, not while this matter with David is unresolved.  
  
"Look, I've got a bit of a family crisis here at the moment, is there someone else you can send?"  
  
"Look Simon, I'll make a bargain with you. You get your butt down to Punakaiki and sort out those whales and I won't discuss your appropriation of department property for private use when you get back to the office on Monday. Is that clear?" With that the call ends. Simon stares at the phone and then brightens as he recalls the clan of The People that live in the bush near Punakaiki.  
  
"They'll help me with David," he thinks as he turns to tell David of his departure. 


	3. Singer, hunter and minstrel

David watches as his brother drives down the road. He almost had him convinced but could see he lost him at the end. What will he do now? Turning to the west he sighs and raises his hand in silent prayer. After about five minutes he turns and walks back to the cottage. There are things he must do before his departure in the morning. If his brother doesn't return before then he will need to leave something would enable his brother and the others to follow him in due course.  
  
After all what is the point of dwelling in Valinor if none of your kin can join you.  
  
He switches on the computer and waits for it to boot up. There are files there that he wanted to show to Simon. Most were notes about Tolkien's Elvish languages and their similarity to the speech of the People, a very important one was a description of a very vivid dream that came to him not more than two months ago. He pauses with his fingers poised over the keyboard, he should have explained his journey to this point more clearly to Simon but where to begin?  
  
And slips into a waking dream of childhood past, a dream of remembrance.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
It was a different land, the land of his childhood before humans had walked these shores. The green bush covered the land in a verdant mantle that reached from shore to shore. No beasts roamed the land instead giant birds, the likes of which are no longer seen, walked under the green canopy of the bush. The People likewise roamed freely through the land spending a season by some lake or shore and then moving on. But always they would return to their city.  
  
For they had a city then in the heart of the northern island by the shores of the great lake. Their dwellings twined around the giants of the forest like necklaces around the necks of fair maidens. Overhead giant eagles soared on golden wings. In the city children laughed and played in the porticos of the city and when the evening came they listened with wide eyes to the stories of their elders. He remembered being one of those children, of clasping his brother's hand while they listened to songs of choices made in the dark, of the coming of the sun, and the journey, beset by many dangers, to this land.  
  
He developed a deep and abiding love of words, of poetry and song. Ever curious he pestered his elders about the tales of the past. Equally curious was his brother but his heart was given to the land and the living things that dwelt on it.  
  
The years passed and the time came for them to take wives but there were none among the People that could claim his heart. He roamed far with his brother, while his brother sought out new vistas he would compose songs about what they had seen. One crisp autumn's dawn when they were on one of their many journeys he heard the song of a distant flute. Following the sound he came to a clifftop overlooking the roseate eastern sea. There sitting on a rock was a maiden playing a flute to welcome the morning sun. She was lithe with golden hair and eyes of deepest indigo but it was the music that amazed him. Words finally came to him that seemed so part of the music that he had to sing. She turned when she heard his voice and smiled. Together they welcomed the rising sun with voice and flute.  
  
They were wed the following midsummer's day and the first of his children was born the following spring. But his joy was short lived.  
  
For the Night of Fire came.  
  
For some time a dark fume had hung over the great lake giving the elders much cause for concern. There were many volcanoes in the land but what they didn't realise that the greatest was the lake beside their city. One night it erupted with fire and ash. He was sleeping next to his wife and child when they were awakened by a tremendous noise. She grabbed the child and they fled in the night. But they lost each in the darkness that was more than the absence of night.  
  
Afterwards he found others that had fled the city but he never found her. What had once been their city had been covered in deep ash and the People never built another one.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Tears flow down David's face as he remembers his wife and child, are they out there, are they walking the streets of Valinor waiting for him? 


End file.
